Why is there no longer concorde?

Question

Surely if it only takes 3.5 hours to fly to New York from London it should be popular

Was it really unsafe? and therefore lack of people wanting to risk using it

Answer 1

Erm............something to do with wings falling off or cracking etc? Some 'crazy' people decided they didnt like the idea of that

Answer 2

Safety was not an issue. The only reason that Concorde was retired was because it was too expensive to maintain and fly.

Answer 3

No the Concorde was totally safe to fly.

It was just too expensive to fly.

The reason:

When flying above mach 1, all aircraft experience a type of drag called 'wave drag' this radiates energy away from the aircraft that the engines have to replace, thus increasing amount of fuel used.

Back when this was first designed, fuel was pretty cheap, well under $1 per gallon. But then there was the oil crisis in 1973, rising fuel costs, the unfortunate crash which was caused by foreign object debris, and plummeting passenger travel after 9/11.

The technology in the cockpit appears 'outdated' but it was never upgraded because the Concorde never had any direct competition.

Answer 4

It was nothing to do with it's age as some have suggested, they could easily have built more.

It all comes down to economics, first the development costs rocketed out of proportion, secondly and most relevant, not enough airlines bought them, consequently only twenty were ever built and hundreds needed to have been sold to make a profit.

Even Richard Branson thought about reviving it, but the economics made it impossible.

Answer 5

it drank too much gas.......it was pretty though........

Answer 6

Only one Concorde crashed. It was caused by an American aircraft losing pieces of its airframe while taking off in France and the French ground personnel who should have picked up and remove the metal from the runway failed to do their job, as a result the Concorde ran over the metal while taking off causing a fuel tank to rupture and catch fire.

The Concorde was removed from service because they became to expensive to operate.

Answer 7

I heard that as well, and I believe it did have to do with the price.

-Kenny

Answer 8

BA and Air France couldnt run it without losing money. Virgin offered to buy it, but BA and AF both knew that Virgin Atlantic could run it with a profit, which would be a big slap in the face for BA and AF from one of their major competitors.

Answer 9

lol it was just loud and and used lots of fuel, it was VERY popular, that why there was that uproar of people angry about them banning it.

Answer 10

Carbon footprint?

Answer 11

See, weiss nicht really does know.

Answer 12

Too expensive to fly!

Answer 13

Concord was outdated technology before it ever flew and could never make profits. Boeing realized that and cancelled their SST. The British and Fench for what ever reason decided to dive in and take the biggest financial bath in aviation history. Just plain dumb. Pretty airplane though huh?

Answer 14

No

it cost 8k a person each way.

uneconomical.

Answer 15

Their usefull service life is over. Too old and expensive to maintain and fly. Neither British Airways or Air France made any real money flying them. They were flagship aircraft. I would say that with the number of flying hours accumulated by both airlines and the accident frequency that they were relatively safe. My only regret was that I never had the chance to fly in one. It will probably be quite some time (if ever) before we see anything like them again.

Answer 16

it wasn,t really unsafe it,s just not economical to fly anymore,such a beautiful aircraft will never grace the skies again,but you never know,some multi-millionaire might buy one, i,m sure there would be a queue a mile long to buy a ticket on it...4rolls-royce olympus engines, belting along the runway at 250mph !..what a buzz that would be....

Answer 17

It  was old and breaking up so they pulled it before there was a serious accident.

Answer 18

Lot's of reasons.  It did have one really bad accident in France, and it was grounded for awhile but flew again.  I think Richard Branson would have flown it, but BA wouldn't let him.  He didn't seem to care how much it would cost.  There was also some problem with the paint, as it needed special paint that BA wouldn't sell to anyone.  Those are some of the factors, but I'm sure there are more.  Do a search on here for Concorde, and you will see a lot more answers to this.

Answer 19

It crashed due to its age and killed people, so, erm, no more Concorde